Permian Basin

The count of active U.S. drilling rigs plummeted by 29 units, almost 3.5%, to rest at 809 in the latest count by Baker Hughes Inc. for the week ending Oct. 2. Canada added a net of three rigs to bring the North American rig decline to minus 26, about 2.56% down from the prior week.

Oryx Southern Delaware Oil Gathering and Transport LLC is holding a binding open season through Oct. 29 for the Oryx Trans Permian pipeline system (OTP), now under construction which will gather and transport crude oil from the southern Delaware Basin in Texas. It’s an area where production has been growing and infrastructure expanding.

The decline in the U.S. rig count decelerated again to a drop of just four rigs in the count released by Baker Hughes Inc. on Friday (Sept. 25).

Dallas-based independent Matador Resources Co. is bolstering its balance sheet to support Permian Basin development with the sale of its Loving County, TX, gathering and processing system in the Delaware subbasin to a unit of EnLink Midstream Partners LP for $143 million.

Across the Lower 48, the seven major oil and natural gas basins have seen a clear decline overall in production, but new-well output per rig — natural gas and oil — is strengthening, the Energy Information Administration said Monday.

The U.S. and Canadian rig counts continued their slide in the latest Baker Hughes Inc. census amid the mantra of “lower for longer” oil prices now widely spouted by industry executives and analysts.

In Texas, fewer workers are producing more oil to be sold at lower prices as the Lone Star state remains on track to exceed its all-time production record set in 1972, according to the economist who maintains the industry barometer known as the Texas Petro Index (TPI).

Noble Energy Inc. on Tuesday increased its third quarter guidance by 10,000 boe/d at the midpoint, primarily to reflect increasingly efficient production from its wells in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin.

The U.S. oil and gas rig count saw a net decline of 13 as 16 rigs retreated from land drilling while three joined the hunt offshore, according to Baker Hughes Inc. in its report for the week ending Sept. 4. Texas took the biggest hit, losing 11 rigs to the ongoing price route.